16 January 2009

Longer than the Eiffel Tower

Today in 2002, at the Chantiers de l'Atlantique shipyard in Saint Nazaire, France, the first steel was cut for the Queen Mary 2, the biggest passenger ship of all time. The contract, worth almost $800 million, was the biggest ever signed by the Cunard line. Though the costs of shipbuilding have obviously increased in the last 75 years, as has inflation, other things have stayed the same. Like her predecessor, the QM2 surpasses the Eiffel Tower in length, there being only 112 1/2 feet difference between the two ships. Also, their cruising speeds are exactly the same: 28.5 knots (though both have surpassed that).